Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A good friends daughter has been asking her for a snake for over a year so they are now considering getting her 1 but they also have a pet hamster, they'd have to live in the same room and i'm not sure if thats such a good idea. does anyone have any opinions?

Many thanks,

Kenny.

my snakes are only about 9 feet away from my rat colony.......doesn't make a difference.

Pitoon

Syrian hamsters have long teeth and tend to bite while being constricted. Or was the OP's intention that the beautiful snake not eat the vile rodent?

lol, sorry, just trying to tweak the animal left. I'm actually quite fond of some mammals.

I've actually had a bit of a problem cleaning snake cages on top of an ASF rack. Seems a good number of my ball pythons now think they are retics and swipe open mouthed at the air whenever I open their cages and sometimes even after I get them out. Probably wouldn't be so bad in a bigger room.

Hi as far as i'm aware they have 1 pet hamster and want 1 pet python and the hamsters not for eating! they've had the hamster for a while now so i doubt it will still be around when the pythons big enough to eat it. they are both going to be kept in the daugheters bedroom.

kenny

I tried to feed a hamster to my largest girl once, and she wanted no parts of it. I guess it didn't smell like it would taste good.
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)

I have a pair of rats in my room with all 3 of my snakes, they're fine. In fact I WISH they would encourage my BP to eat, hahaha. As long as everybody remains in their respective cages it's not a problem, however unlike with hamsters a kid can't really be counted on to care for a ball python on their own so make sure that the parents are pretty involved too.
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Danne
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1.0 '07 BRB "Monroe"
1.0 '08 BRB 66% het Anery "Ace"
1.0 '08 Pastel BP "Sebastian"
1.1 Leos "Bowser & Peach"
0.2 Dumbo (non-feeder) rats "Josie & Holly"

Email = dshoback@eden.rutgers.edu

Hi thanks for the reply, i'm glad its ok. i agree about the child "care" aspect. I've been making sure that she knows education is most important and providing her with books to read which i've been testing her on so she appreciates the responsibility involved. Both her parents are very good friends of mine so if once she's got one her enthusiasm goes they know that i'll be there to give it a good home. they would'nt agree straight away but its been over a year and she's still really interested.

regards,

Kenny.

Hamster in the same room with a ball python won't be a problem. Just make sure the girl understand she has to wash her hands if she handles the hamster, before handling the snake. Though hamsters not really a typical prey food for ball pythons, if she smells like the hamster the snake may think she's food and bite. Never good to get bit if it can be helped.

Not sure how old the hamster she has is...but they don't typically have a long lifespan...I think 3-4 years. So if its that old it probably won't live much longer.
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PHLdyPayne